Blizna, Poland - test site of V2 missile скачать в хорошем качестве

Blizna, Poland - test site of V2 missile

Following the Nazi German occupation of Poland, the area around Blizna became a military exercise area and local civilians were either forced to move or had access restricted. Following the RAF bombing of Peenemünde on 17 August 1943, a decision was made to disperse the rocket programme so that manufacturing was done at Nordhausen concentration camp in the Harz Mountains in central Germany whilst testing was done at Blizna which started on 5 November 1943. Wernher von Braun, one of the proponents of building rockets and post-war director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, worked at the Blizna test site. A number of test launches were made in this area although the Polish resistance - the Home Army - quickly learned of what was happening. On 20 May 1944 a missle that fell into a swampy area near Sarnaki on what is today eastern Poland and was not destroyed on impact was dismantled by the resistance and parts were taken to the UK for examination there. Due to the advance of the Red Army, the site was evacuated on 20 July 1944 and taken to the Tuchola Forest near Bydgoszcz.